Alberta Premier Danielle Smith expected to call Alberta election today

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is expected to call a provincial election during an announcement later this morning in Calgary.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is expected to call a provincial election during an announcement later this morning in Calgary.

Alberta has a fixed election date with the next provincial general election scheduled to be held on May 29.

Both Smith's United Conservatives and Rachel Notley's New Democrats have already been unofficially campaigning for weeks, with both leaders appearing at rallies over the weekend and the NDP releasing a campaign song.

The UCP hopes to win re-election under Smith, who was voted in by the party after former premier Jason Kenney garnered a tepid endorsement in a leadership review last spring and quit.

Notley led the party to a surprising win in 2015 - the first for the NDP in Alberta - benefiting from vote splits between the Progressive Conservatives and its right-wing rival, the Wildrose Party.

Those two conservative parties mended fences to defeat Notley as the new United Conservative Party in 2019.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 1, 2023.